Exterior operating member for watertight watches



May 28, 1940. MORF 2,202,114

EXTERIOR OPERATING MEMBER FOR WATERTIGHT WATCHES Filed Aug. 5, 1938 I a a n 2. E Q i/ 1\\\\ k V W i i \a p? 5 .2.-

INVENTOR ERNEST MoRF Patented May 28, 1940 UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE EXTERIOR OPERATING MEMBER FOR WATERTIGHT WATCHES Ernest Morf, La Chaux-de-Fonds, Switzerland Claims. (or; 58-90) The present invention relates to exterior operating members for watertight watches.

There are exterior operating members such as the pendant in watertight watches in which 5 either the portion on the outside of the watch, that is, the crown, or the tube fast to the casing and serving as a guide for the stem which penetrates into the watch is provided with a packing of a compressible material to assure the tightness of the joints between the moving parts. However, while in use, such packings become loose. In the case of the pendant, the actions of winding up and time setting wear the packing surfaces very rapidly so that after a time the pressure exerted by the resilient packing is insufiicient to assure the tightness of the respective Joint.

The present invention seeks to remedy this defect and submits the packing to the efiect of a spring which presses the packing between the joint of the movable parts. This spring may assume different forms and may be seated either in the guiding tube or in the outer portion (crown). It presses the resilient material between the moving parts and assures the tightness in spite of the wear of the packing.

The annexed drawing represents as an example two embodiments of a pendant according to the present invention. Both are axial sections and similar reference characters indicate analogous parts.

With reference to Fig. 1 the crown or exterior controlling member a is provided inside at its center with a sleeve b into which is screwed the winding stem 0. The tube (1 of the pendant is fast to the casing e and encloses a chamber j which receives a compressed helical spring 9 bearing by means of a plate It upon a packing i of compressible material, such as, for instance,

synthetic rubber, laminated leather, agglomerated cork, etc. This packing is held inside the chamber f by means of an annular ledge d It is easily understood that the pressure of spring 9 tends to compress the packing i and therefore to press it against the wall of chamber 1 and against the outside of sleeve b which two surfaces are submitted to a reciprocal axial movement. The wear on the packing will have no influence whatever upon the quality of tightness of the joint since the resiliency of the spring causes the packing to spread laterally to always provide the required thickness for filling the space between the sleeve b and tube d.

In the embodiment shown in Fig. 2, there is a crown a with sleeve 17. The tube 41. of the pendant is fast to the casing. The winding stem is screwed fast into the sleeve b which is integral with the crown a provided with a chamber 11 This chamber encloses a packing i which is kept in place by a plate It snapped into an annu 6 lar groove of the crown. The chamber a also encloses a spring I having the form of a circular curved plate, which presses by means of a washer h on the packing i. The action of this spring presses the packing against the inner wall of 10 the chamber a of the crown and the outer surface of tube 11 which two surfaces are susceptible of a relative axial movement. The two arrangements of packings described could also-be combined the one being inside and the other 15 outside of the tube d, d

In the above the arrangement of a tight fit was adapted to the pendant of water tight watches, but it is evident that the claimed members could also be utilized in other parts of the watch which, 20 like the pendant, contain members traversing the case band and which present joints between the inside of the watch and the outside. Such parts are, for instance, the push buttons of any kind in chronographs, counters, etc. 25

What I claim is:

1. In a watertight watch having a case band, a stationary member fast to the case band, an operating member susceptible of an axial displacement with respect to said stationary mem- 30 ber, a resilient packing touching said two members, and a spring adapted to press said packing against the two members, both packing and spring being held in axial direction by one of the two members only. 35

2. In a watertight watch having a case band,

a tube fast to the case band, an operating member in said tube susceptible of an axial displacement with respect to said tube, a resilient packing positioned in said tube between the interior of 40 the tube and the exterior of said operating member, a ledge at one end of said tube for limiting axial displacement of the packing, a spring in the tube and surrounding the operating member for urging the packing against said ledge and 45 causing it to expand between the tube and oper ating member, and a second ledge on said tube for supporting said spring.

3. In a watertight watch having a case band,

a stationary member fast to the case band, an operating member in the form of a crown provided with a cover and surrounding said stationary member in spaced relation thereto to provide an annular chamber within said crown about the stationary member, a ledge on the side of said 55 cram oppoaitetbeeoverior positioned between said pectin: and said helical aid ebnmbenmdereliiientpeckln: and spring.

apringaxiallyheldinaidehnmberbyaaideom 5.1nnwatertizhtwatchaeeordinstocinim1 nndinwhlch theaprinziainthe torm otadiak,

peeking to radially expend between the crown a. washer positioned between said packing and 5 nndmtionu'y member. v said disk spring.

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